Kaibacorp, Under Attack
by SK Dark Dragon
Summary: -Completed- Mai has accidentally tipped off a dangerous group to Kaiba's agenda, and now an attack has begun on Kaibacorp building. Rated for very mild violence. -Sequel to Springing Into Action. Read and Review!-
1. Chapter 1 Poison Rush

Chapter One: Poison Rush  
  
"Hello? Kaibacorp, this is his secretary," Mai Valentine answered cheerfully, one day in early spring.  
  
"No, he doesn't want to buy mops, trust me sweetheart," she cooed through the phone. "Bu-bye now!"  
  
Mai leaned back in her chair and swirled around happily. It was a day in spring, and she was greatly enjoying her new position as Seto Kaiba's secretary.  
  
"So what if the pool thing didn't turn out," she said, remembering her old spring job. "This is the life!"  
  
A buzzer rang on her desk.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Mai, I'd like to speak to you in my office," Seto Kaiba's voice came through the speaker.  
  
"Sure, gotcha!" Mai said springing up and trotting into the office. "You wanted to see me?"  
"Yes," Kaiba said, swiveling his chair around so he could see Mai. "Now Mai, I   
have to talk frankly to you."  
  
"Mm," Mai said, looking at her nails.  
  
"Since you've arrived a week ago, I've been getting less and less business and my employees are beginning to get annoyed with you," he said to her, sternly.  
  
"And?"  
  
"And I believe it is for the good of the company to let you go," he finished.  
  
"Let me...go?" Mai asked, stunned. "But you can't! I need a job! I have to..."  
  
"You should have thought about that before you tried to flirt with one of the biggest customers of this company, Mai," Kaiba pointed out.  
  
Mai stamped her foot and shook her fist.  
  
"You...you...I was just trying to be...I was NOT flirting...I..." Mai stammered angrily.  
  
"Good bye, Mai, however, you are welcome to my dueling competition this evening," Kaiba added, giving her a flyer. "It'll be starting in an half-and hour."  
  
"No thanks," Mai said, balling up the paper and tossing it in the waste basket.   
  
"Good bye!"  
  
"Good bye," Kaiba said, turning away from her.  
  
Mai stomped out of the office and leaned against the door. Fired again?  
  
"What am I going to do?" she thought miserably. "That jerk Kaiba," she mumbled as she headed for the door.  
  
Suddenly, the phone on her old desk rang. She slouched over to it and snatched the phone up off the hook.  
  
"Yeah, what?" she snapped answering it.  
  
"Is Mister Kaiba going to be working late tonight?" A strange voice asked.  
  
"Yeah, dueling competition," Mai said shortly.  
  
"And...does he have a large security?" The voice inquired.  
  
"No, why do you care?" Mai snapped tapping her nails angrily.  
  
"No reason."  
  
The line went dead.  
  
Mai slammed the phone down.  
  
"Good bye!" she yelled and slammed the door, causing the pictures on the wall to rattle.  
  
Twenty minutes later, Yugi, Duke, Tristan, Tea, Joey, and Serenity had arrived to play Duel Monsters. Tea, Serenity, and Mokuba were upstairs watching the news and Duke and Yugi were milling around in Kaiba's office, waiting for others to arrive.  
  
"Where are they?" Kaiba thought, typing on his lap top.  
  
"I'm going to go to the restroom," Triston said leaving the room.  
  
"I'm going to pick up a pizza," Joey said, following Triston out the door.  
  
"Want to...DDM duel?" Duke asked, pulling a set out of his bag.  
  
"Sure," Yugi agreed and the two set up the board.  
  
They were all set up to play and had just chosen colors when suddenly, the door   
flew open and three men with long slender guns entered the room!  
  
"What the..." Yugi and Duke cried, jumping up and spilling the Dungeon Dice pieces everywhere.  
"Those are..." Kaiba muttered, staring at the vaguely familiar guns. "What do you want?"  
  
The men didn't answer.  
  
"Get 'em!" he yelled, and they began to shoot at them all.  
  
Darts flew everywhere, smashing picture frames and knocking things down. Kaiba tried to dodge them, but two hit his arm. He yanked them out and ran toward the open door.  
  
"Come on, Yugi, Duke!" he called to the others, who quickly followed.  
  
A dart flew past Duke's head and got stuck in the door as he ducked it. Duke paused for a half-second to yank it out before running after the other two.  
As they ran down the hall, they spotted Triston walking slowly at the end of the corridor.  
  
"What's...up?" Triston asked, looking at the three speeding down the hallway.  
  
"No time! Follow us!" Duke yelled.  
  
The four ran to the end of the hallway and got into an elevator. Triston jammed down the bottom button and sighed. As the elevator started to descend, Kaiba fell back against the wall of the elevator, clutching his arm. He felt dizzy.  
  
"Are you all right?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Poison darts," Kaiba mumbled. "Not much time left."  
  
"Poison?" Yugi cried.  
  
Duke pulled out his hair-holder and tied it tightly around Kaiba's arm.  
  
"That 'ought to slow it down," he explained as they hit the bottom floor.  
  
The four got out of the elevator and looked around. Everything looked fairly normal on the bottom floor of Kaibacorp.  
  
"We've got to get out of here," Duke said hurriedly, pointing to the glass doors.  
  
"Wait!" Kaiba gasped, leaning against the wall for support. "Mokuba, he's still up there!"  
  
"Tea and Serenity too!" Yugi cried, rushing back toward the elevator.  
  
"I'll go help them," Triston said bravely. "You too need to get Kaiba to a hospital, fast!"  
  
"Um," Yugi nodded and they split up.  
  
Duke, Kaiba, and Yugi ran outside and looked around. Cars were going by in the evening traffic and people were walking down the streets like normal.  
  
"There's a car!" Duke cried, pointing to a black car parked in the parking lot and the three hurried over to it.  
  
Yugi hopped in the front seat and Kaiba and Duke got in the back.  
  
"Oh no, the keys!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
Kaiba reached into his pocket, pulled out a set, and weakly tossed them to Yugi, who promptly put them in the ignition.  
  
"Can you actually drive, Yugi?" Duke asked as he buckled up.  
  
"Uh....I've been to driver's education...." Yugi muttered.  
  
Duke started to sweat as Yugi tried to get his feet to reach the pedals.   
  
"Look, I'll do it," Duke said, starting to unbuckled again.  
  
"No! It's take to long and we have to hurry!" Yugi protested.  
  
"This is where you take over Yami," Yugi said, letting out the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. "I'm too short for the pedals."  
  
"Uh...okay..." Yami muttered looking at all the gears.  
  
"Just push that pedal!" Duke cried leaning over and pointing to the gas pedal.  
  
"Like this?" Yami inquired, pushing down the pedal as far as it would go.  
  
He soon realized what a mistake that was. The car sped off, and the three caught a whiff of burning rubber as they roared down the street.  
  
Meanwhile, Mai was grumpily driving her convertible down the street when Yami's car zoomed by her. She slammed on the brakes and skid a few feet before coming to a stop. She loosened her seat belt as it cut across her neck from the sharp   
stop.  
  
"What the..." she muttered looking at the car and the people in it, then gasped.   
  
"That hair-do! I'd recognize it anywhere! It's Yugi!"  
  
She geared up the car again and sped off into the night after them.  
  
Duke yelled another turn to Yami and they narrowly missed the corner of the sidewalk as the sped round the curve. Kaiba was staring out the window.  
  
"Everything's so blurry," he thought dimly.   
  
The lights from the buildings seemed to smear together so he couldn't tell one thing from another. It was all whirling together....and then there were no lights at all.  
  
"Uh oh," Duke cried.  
  
"WHAT?!" Yami cried hysterically as he tried to avoid a pedestrian in the road, causing the vehicle to turn nearly sideways.  
  
"You'd better step on it, Yugi," he said leaning into the front seat. "Kaiba's already unconscious."  
  
He looked out the back window at a flashing light. There were a few cars behind them advancing on them.  
  
"Oh, and someone's on our tail...a little blue car and...THE COPS!" Duke cried jumping a foot. "Hurry up!"  
  
"But I can't run away from the law!" Yami exclaimed.  
  
"YUGI!" Duke shouted.  
  
The sound of the police siren wailed in both their ears, until Yami, feeling too guilty to continue, slammed on the breaks. The smell of burning rubber filled the car once more. A few minutes later, a chubby police officer waddled over to the car.  
  
"License please," he said bordely whipping out a pad of paper.  
  
"What's that?" Yami asked and Duke *anime fainted in the backseat.  
  
"Please sir!" Duke pleaded. "Our friend has been poisoned! We need to get help!"  
  
The officer looked in the backseat, and then opened the door. He shoved Yami over and sat down.   
  
"Okay, let's go!"  
  
Back at Kaibacorp, Triston and Mokuba were running down the hallway together.  
  
"Ni-sama is hurt?" Mokuba asked, worriedly. "Where is he?"  
  
"Uh...Yugi and Duke have taken him to the hospital," Triston said quickly, trying to think of an escape route at the same time. "He'll be fine!" he added quickly.  
  
In a room down the hall, Tea was boredly watching the news with Serenity.  
"...and a chase has started downtown, with a law enforcement officer leading the way in an unidentified black car, closely followed by a teen in a blue convertible and...that boy better get out of the road!"  
"Is that..." Tea muttered looking closely at the boy crossing the street with a pizza box in hand.  
  
"ONICHA!!!" Serenity screamed running over to the television as Joey stopped in the middle of the road as Mai's convertible approached.  
  
At the same moment, Triston barged in the room, his jacket torn from an encounter with the invaders, with Mokuba behind him.  
  
"Hurry!" Mokuba cried.  
  
"We need to go!...Is that Joey?" Triston asked staring at the screen.  
  
Joey's arms flew up and the pizza splattered on Mai's windshield as she slammed on her brakes. Joey scrambled out of the road as she started up the windshield wipers, sloshing the pizza in Joey's face.  
  
Then she took off down the road again.  
  
"That was close," Triston sighed, wiping his forehead in relief. "But we've got to get out of here! This building is under attack by..."  
  
Tea shrieked and pointed behind him. Triston never got to see who was there; everything went black as someone slammed a gun down on his head.  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi and Duke had finally reached the hospital, and thankfully all alive and in one piece. Inside, Kaiba was lying in bed, a nurse examining the dart marks on his arm while a doctor was talking hurriedly to Duke and Yugi.  
  
"So what exactly happened here?" The doctor asked Yugi.  
  
"Well, we were ambushed by some gang or something, and they had poison dart guns," Duke explained.  
  
"And one hit him," Yugi finished.  
  
"I see," The doctor replied. "And did either of you happen to get a sample of the darts?"  
  
Yugi bit his lip as Duke began fishing through his pockets.  
  
"It would make things a lot easier, and faster," The doctor added, looking over at Kaiba. "Some poisons take less than 30 minutes to take full effect."   
  
"We don't have one," Yugi admitted, looking at the ground.  
  
"Yes we do!" Duke remarked, producing the dart he'd picked up on the way out. "Lucky I picked this thing up."  
  
"Good!" The doctor said taking it. "We'll get this analyzed and find an antidote.  
  
He hurried out of the room, leaving Yugi (Yami had gone back into the puzzle) and Duke alone with Kaiba and the nurse.  
  
The next few tense minutes passed quickly, and with each one Yugi and Duke became more and more nervous.  
  
"What happens if we were too late?" Yugi thought looking out the window, remembering about what the doctor had said about poisons.  
  
It had been at least twenty minutes already, if not more. Kaiba himself had said there wasn't much time...   
  
He forced the thought out of his mind. "Hurry," he thought.  
  
A few more minutes later, the doctor returned.  
  
Yugi and Duke looked up, expectantly.  
  
"I've identified the poison," he said happily holding up a syringe. "And found the antidote."  
  
"Whew," Yugi thought, sighing with relieve as the nurse gave Kaiba the injection.  
  
"Will he be okay?" Duke asked as the doctor began writing up a report.  
  
The doctor nodded.  
  
"Yes, that antidote should take effect right away," he said as the nurse began to bandage up the dart wounds.  
  
A second later, the door flew open again.  
  
Mai burst inside, panting for breath. She leaned against the door for a second in which everyone stared at her as she caught her breath.  
  
"Hey guys! I saw you speeding down the street...what the heck is going on?" she asked, noticing Kaiba.  
  
"Well, Kaiabcorp was under attack..." Yugi began.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"...and Kaiba got hit with a..." Duke started, but cut off by a moan behind him.  
  
"Ohh," Kaiba moaned, opening his eyes. "What...happened?" he asked groggily, trying to sit up.  
  
"Just take it easy," Yugi said reassuringly. "Everything's fine now."  
  
Kaiba looked up at the ceiling for a second, trying to recall what he was doing there, in bed.  
  
"Mokuba," Kaiba whispered. "Mokuba! Where is he?" he asked sitting up.  
  
"Back at...Kaibacorp!" Duke cried. "With Tea and Serenity!"  
  
"We've got to go back," Kaiba muttered, trying to get out of bed.  
  
"Wait!" The nurse cried. "You're not in any condition to be leaving anytime soon!"  
  
"I have to," Kaiba replied, staggering out of bed and grabbing his jacket, which was lying on a chair. "I've got to find Mokuba."  
  
"And we've got to find Tea, and make sure she and the others are okay!" Yugi cried following Kaiba, who kept stumbling as he walked, to the door.  
  
"He sure recovers quickly," The doctor remarked.  
  
"Look after him, will you?" The nurse told Duke as he turned to follow the others, still looking concerned.  
  
"Sure!" Duke said with a wink as he followed Mai, who looked very clueless, outside.  
  
The four hurried out of the hospital and toward Kaibacorp, hoping that they weren't already too late to help their friends... 


	2. Chapter 2 Rescue Mission

Chapter Two: Rescue Mission  
  
Kaiba, Yugi, Duke and Mai got into Mai's car, and she took off down the road to   
Kaibacorp.  
  
"So...who were those guys back at Kaibacorp who attacked us?" Yugi asked.  
  
"I don't know," Kaiba muttered, thinking. "Mai, did anyone unusual call today while you were on duty."  
  
Mai sniffed in the front seat, obviously still angry about being let go.  
  
"Well, someone called about selling mops," she offered.  
  
"No, NO!" Kaiba snapped. "I mean REALLY unusual."  
  
"Well...."Mai thought as she passed Joey, who was walking down the street.   
"There was this one guy who was interested into your schedule and security..."  
  
"And you told them the truth!?" Kaiba asked, shocked.  
  
"Well I was ticked off at you!" Mai snapped.  
  
"So you told them to come attack us?"  
  
"NO!" Mai cried. "I just answered that you had only a little security and you were hosting a Duel Monsters Competition tonight."  
  
"Which no one showed up for," Duke observed. "Maybe those thugs had something to do with that."  
  
A few minutes later, they pulled up at Kaibacorp. As they got out of the car, Kaiba fell into Duke.   
  
"Take it easy," Yugi said.  
  
But Kaiba wasn't interested in "taking it easy." He wanted to get to his brother.  
  
"Let's go," he said and the four ran up the stairs to the building.  
  
They took an elevator to the 3rd floor and looked around. The sounds of a television set were coming from a room down the hall, so they all hurried down to it.  
  
Inside was an upturned table, a phone dangling off the hook, but no sign of Mokuba, Serenity, Tea, or Triston.  
  
"Where are they?" Mai asked looking around.  
  
"Mokuba," Kaiba whispered through gritted teeth.  
  
"They must have been...kidnapped," Yugi said sadly.  
  
"Mai," Kaiba said out loud. "Was that the last call of the day? The one from the thugs? If it was, use *69. Use Star-6-9 on the number to find out their location."  
  
Mai nodded.  
  
"Yeah, it was. I'll go do that."  
  
She walked out the door and went up to the elevator. A second later, there was a noise at the door. Everyone turned sharply to see Joey, covered in pizza sauce, standing in the door.  
  
"What did I miss?" Joey asked walking in, picking a pepperoni out of his hair.  
  
"Kaiba was poisoned..." Duke began.  
  
"He was?" Joey asked looking at him. "He looks fine to me...well, sort of."  
  
Kaiba still wasn't looking the best; he was sort of shaking.   
  
"...and now Serenity, Mokuba, Tea, and Triston have supposedly been kidnapped," Duke finished sadly.  
  
"SERENITY!" Joey cried. "WHO LET HER GET KIDNAPPED?!"  
  
"You let her stay here alone while you went out for pizza," Mai snapped as she entered the room again. "So it's your fault if anyone is to blame. I've got the location."  
  
"Good," Kaiba said. "We have to find them."  
  
"Yeah!" Joey agreed, flinging out his arm and accidentally slapping Kaiba's arm.  
  
"OW!" Kaiba cried clutching his arm, which was soar from being injected.  
  
"I couldn't have hit you THAT hard," Joey said.  
  
"Never mind," Kaiba muttered, and they started for the door. "Let's go."  
  
"Um," Yugi agreed.  
  
"This is all so weird," Mai said as they ran down the hall. "Half the stuff that has been happening doesn't make sense."  
  
"What IS happening?!" Joey asked as they ran downstairs.   
  
"We told you! Serenity's been kidnapped and now we've got to go save her!" Duke yelled as they hurried down a flight of stairs. (They'd forgotten to take the elevator.)  
  
"Don't forget Tea and Mokuba!" Yugi added.  
  
Minutes later, they were all back, for the third time, in the car driving down the dark, empty streets.   
  
"So what exactly was going on with the whole, "Mai- nearly-runs- Joey-over- while-being- chased- by- the-police?" Joey asked as they drove down an unfamiliar part of town.  
  
"Oh, I was following Yugi who was driving like a mad-man!" Mai said turning to   
Yugi to take over the story.  
  
"Well, we had to get Kaiba to the hospital," Yugi explained.  
  
"Oh," Kaiba said suddenly, turning to Yugi. "I never thanked you for that; for helping me out back there."  
  
"No problem," Duke said cheerfully as he could.  
  
"Why do they assume they own Kaibacorp now?" Mai inquired.  
  
"They probably think they got me," Kaiba sighed as he looked out at the dark buildings. "And with Mokuba kidnapped, there's no one to stand in their way."  
  
"I understand how Kaiba feels," Yugi thought to himself. "If they didn't mind poisoning Kaiba, what will they do to Tea and the others?"  
  
As Mai pulled up in front of a beat-up ware-house, Yugi pointed to the window.  
  
"There's a light on!" he cried. "This is probably the place."  
  
"That was stupid of them," Kaiba remarked as everyone got out of the car. "Real master-minds know that you should never call from your hide-out for the exact reasons you see before you; people can track them."  
  
"It was also stupid of Mai to give off that information," Joey added with a snicker.  
  
Mai slapped Joey.  
  
"Well, that's lucky for us in our case," Duke said as Joey rubbed his red cheek.   
  
"But how are we going to save Serenity?"  
  
"I don't know..." Yugi said, transforming into Yami for help.  
  
"Their edge is that they have the hostages, and are armed with those poison   
guns," Kaiba pointed out. "I suppose we should look around the building first."  
  
"How about call the police?" Joey asked.  
  
"Do what you want," Kaiba said walking toward the window. "But I'm rescuing Mokuba."  
  
Kaiba walked up to a window and quietly peered inside. Mokuba, Tea, Serenity, and Triston were tied to chairs in the back of the room...near a door! Kaiba filed that bit of information away.  
But then he noticed that the thugs were sitting close by, at a table, their guns beside them.  
  
"How are we going to get by them?" Duke asked, coming up behind Kaiba and looking in the window.  
  
"We could use that back door," Yami said, pointing to it on the other side of the warehouse.  
  
"But one of us is likely to get hit, and if not one of us, then one of the hostages," Kaiba pointed out.  
  
"Wait!..." he thought, and started to devise a plan.  
  
"Maybe Joey is right and we ought to get the police over here," Mai said nervously.  
  
"Good idea, Mai," Joey said, happy someone agreed with his plan.  
  
"But it's midnight!" Duke cried, looking at his watch. "And after the big "road-race" we caused, I bet they've all gone home for the night."  
  
"Then I guess it's up to us," Yami said, thinking.  
  
"Our edge..."Kaiba thought. "I've got it!" he exclaimed.  
  
"What?" Everyone else chorused.  
  
"I can be the bait," he explained.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"No, listen," he said, lowering his voice. "It won't matter if I get shot, because I've already got the antidote. I can distract them while you sneak in the back and try to rescue the others. As long as I don't get shot too many times, that antidote should hold."  
  
"But that's still dangerous!" Mai cried. "You're outnumbered."  
  
"You want to rescue your friends?" Kaiba snapped.  
  
Mai sighed.  
  
"Fine," she said airily, remembering she was supposed to be mad at Kaiba.  
  
"Kaiba..." Yami started, but decided against it. It was the best plan any of them could come up with, and knowing Kaiba, he wasn't about to let people like them stand in the way of rescuing his brother.  
  
"All right, when they get up and start to follow me, you sneak in back through that door," Kaiba told them. "Does anyone have a pocket knife?"  
  
"Uh...." Joey muttered, fishing through his pockets. "I thought I had one..."  
  
"Never mind," Kaiba snapped. "Duke? Yugi?"  
  
"How about a nail-file?" Mai asked, holding it up.  
  
"Good, and lend Joey your keys," Kaiba instructed.  
  
"I have..." Yami thought looking through his pockets. "How about a piece of the puzzle? A jagged piece? Yugi could use that!"  
  
"Fine,"  
  
"And I've got...." Duke muttered looking around. "Dice? You'll need those more than I will."  
  
He handed over a few dice to Kaiba who stared at them.  
  
"Okay," Kaiba muttered. "Use...another key off the key ring."  
  
They nodded.  
  
"And you can also try to untie them if the sawing doesn't work," Kaiba whispered as everyone went to take their places.  
  
"Good luck," Yugi called over quietly.  
  
Kaiba looked at the window, and then the dice in his hand.   
  
"Perhaps these dice will come in more handy than I thought," he muttered, and took careful aim.  
  
Then, he threw it at the window, where the old glass cracked and shattered.  
  
"Who's there!?" Came the thugs' voices.  
  
Kaiba could hear them coming outside. Wait...only two sets of footsteps. Someone was staying!  
  
Kaiba ran around the other side of the building as fast as he could and tossed another cube through that window, which shattered as well.  
  
He heard more footsteps coming his way. All of the footsteps?  
Kaiba waved through the window quickly.  
  
"Hey!" he called out. "Over here!"  
  
"Ni-sama?!" Mokuba cried, looking up happily.  
  
Three darts whistled by Kaiba, and one stuck his arm. He quickly got out of the way of the window and pulled the dart painfully out of his already soar arm.  
  
"Okay..." he thought as he heard two doors open. "One for Yugi, and one for the thugs."  
  
Suddenly, the three thugs came up behind him.  
  
"Gotcha!" They cried as they began shooting.  
  
But Kaiba dodged the darts and hurried around a corner.  
Meanwhile, Yugi and the others were busy quickly untying Serenity, Triston, Tea, and Mokuba.   
  
"Where's my brother?" Mokuba asked, worried as he stood up.  
  
"He's playing the worm," Duke said quickly, hoping the answer would satisfy him for a while.  
  
"Worm?"  
  
Yugi sighed.  
  
"He's being bait outside," he explained as he freed Serenity, the last of the hostages. "We've got to go help him."  
  
They ran outside and saw Kaiba running around the corner.  
  
"Keep going!" he cried, motioning for them to continue running.  
  
Yugi put the piece back into the Millennium Puzzle as he rounded the next corner and transformed into Yami Yugi.  
  
As they turned the last corner, they came face to face with the thugs.  
  
"Mind Crush!" Yami cried, as both Duke and Kaiba threw the remainder of the dice at them.  
  
The thugs fell to the ground, the dart guns and all.  
  
"What the..." Triston cried.  
  
"Don't ask," Yami said turning around.  
  
"Whew," Joey sighed, hugging Serenity. "I'm so glad that it's over."  
  
"Onichan," Serenity whispered as she hugged him back.  
  
"Are you okay, 'ni-sama?" Mokuba asked as he walked over to his brother.  
  
"Fine," Kaiba said quickly. "What about you?"  
  
Mokuba nodded.  
  
Mai leaned against her convertible.   
  
"Anyone want a lift home?" she called as she stuck her keys in the ignition.  
Everyone gratefully nodded.  
  
"Thank you, Yugi!" Tea exclaimed, hugging Yugi.  
  
"Thanks, Yami," Yugi thought to his partner, who had once again retreated inside the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
"I was glad to help, Yugi," he replied.  
  
"Wow," Triston said, rubbing his head. "What was up with all of that?"  
  
"I still don't know for sure," Kaiba muttered as they all got in the car and drove off toward home.  
* * *   
  
The next day, Kaiba had rescheduled his competition for that evening, and Yugi and his friends had come over earlier to hang out. (Plus: Duke had left his DDM game over, and didn't want it to get lost)  
  
Joey was out getting another pizza, this time with Mai, and Serenity and Tea were watching the DDM game play.  
  
Kaiba, surprisingly, was NOT on the computer, typing away. (His arm was still soar from the previous night's events) He, instead, was dueling with Triston. (Which wasn't a challenge at all)  
  
"I hope today's competition goes smoothly," Yugi said out loud as his Celtic Guardian advanced onto Duke's territory.  
  
"Me too," Kaiba said as he had Saggi the Dark Clown wipe Triston out.  
  
"Beaten by...a clown?" Triston cried.  
  
Kaiba yawned.  
  
Yes, everything did seem normal, but normal is when disaster strikes the hardest... 


	3. Chapter 3 Locked Down

Chapter Three: Locked Down  
  
After a few hours of playing Duel Monsters and Dungeon Dice, a few of the other competitors began to show up. Mako Tsunami and Rex Raptor showed up first, and they immediately started up an argument over some trivial matter.  
  
Weevil Underwood and Espa Roba showed up a little later. Everyone was watching a game, playing a game, or in conversation (or argument) with someone else when   
Mokuba blew his whistle to quiet everyone down.  
  
"All right!" Mokuba called over the crowd of duelists and cheerleaders. "It's time to start the duels!"  
  
"YEAH!" Joey cried happily, punching his fist into his hand. "Can I play first?!"  
  
"Uh..." Mokuba mumbled, slightly surprised by Joey's ridiculous attitude. "Okay. And do we have a challenger?"  
  
No one raised their hand. No one said anything except for Rex, who might have mumbled something about Joey not being worthy enough to play anyone present.  
  
"How about..." Mokuba said, closing his eyes and spinning his hand around.   
  
"You!" he said, opening his eyes again and pointing at Bakura.  
  
"Me?" Bakura asked, pointing at himself to make sure he was the one being identified. "Okay!"  
  
"Bakura!" Joey cried, jumping away from him. "Not him!" he thought desperately. "I don't want to play his Occult Deck!"  
  
"Don't worry, Joey," Bakura said, patting Joey's shoulder sympathetically. "I've   
changed my deck since the evil spirit dueled."  
  
Joey sighed.  
  
"Whew!"  
  
"To the arena, then," Kaiba declared, leading Joey and Bakura down a long silver corridor. "Let's all watch the "under-dog" play Bakura." he thought to himself as the entered the playing room.  
  
"Whoa!" Joey cried, as he saw a large arena disappear and a floor come up where   
the arena should have been.   
  
On the other side of the room, the floor was going down and a large arena was coming down from the ceiling.  
  
"It's an adjustable room," Kaiba explained as they entered after everything was settled. "Just make sure you're not in here when it's adjusting or you will find yourself in another room."  
  
"Trust me," Tea muttered as she walked in. "I won't be in here while it's moving."  
  
As soon as everyone was situated, the audience watching and the players ready,   
  
Joey and Bakura drew their opening hands. They were playing on a regular arena as opposed to the Duel Disks, and everyone else was watching from the sidelines.  
  
"I'll play first, okay?" Bakura said putting a card on the field.  
  
The hologram fuzzed for a moment, then the monster appeared...and everyone gasped at what it was.  
  
"The...Petite Angel?!" Joey laughed. "You HAVE changed your deck."  
  
A few members in the audience chuckled. Rex burst out laughing.  
  
"But...but..." Bakura stammered, turning pink and looking down at the card he had played on the dueling arena. "I didn't play that! I played this one!"   
  
He held up the Portrait's Secret.  
  
"Wha..." Joey asked, squinting to see the card. "You're right, that isn't the...PETITE ANGEL!"  
  
He burst out laughing again.  
  
"That's NOT funny, Joey!" Bakura said angrily placing the card back in his hand. "I won't use that one then."  
  
"Go! Defense mode," Bakura said playing it in defense mode.  
  
"Okay! My go!" Joey said, standing up straight and clearing his throat.  
  
He drew his card and grinned.  
  
"Okay! Go, Alligator Sword, in attack mode!" he shouted as he slapped the card down on the field.  
  
The hologram fuzzed again and then Beta the Magnet Warrior appeared where the   
Alligator Sword should have been.  
  
"What?!" Joey cried leaning over the edge of his field to see better.  
  
"WHAT?" Kaiba asked checking his computer screen. "There doesn't appear to be any malfunctions with the system." he thought. "But what is going on here?"  
  
"Oh well," Joey shrugged. "He had better attack anyway. ATTACK!"  
  
Beta the Magnet Warrior leapt across the arena and slashed through Bakura's defense card. It was Shining Friendship.   
  
"But...." Bakura stammered as the little monster was destroyed. "I didn't play that one either!"  
  
"What the heck?" Kaiba muttered as he looked through his main computer files.   
  
"It seems like the server running the online Dueling Field has been tampered with. Some other server is taking control of it, and apparently the other server has mixed up the files on the Duel Field recognizer. Every card is being identified as something else..."  
  
"What's going on, Ni-sama?" Mokuba asked turning to his brother.  
  
"I don't know..." Kaiba muttered, looking back at the Duel Field. "But whatever it is, it's not good."  
  
Kaiba shut the lap-top.  
  
"This duel has been cancelled," he announced to the two arguing opponents.  
  
"*Nani?" Joey asked, looking over at Kaiba.  
  
"Good," Bakura sighed, packing up his deck, which did NOT compose of any fairy type monsters. "At least now I won't have to sit through the rest of a duel looking like I'm using a girly deck!"  
  
The two trooped over to a bench while Kaiba and Mokuba went over to the arena.  
  
"What is the matter here?" he asked as he scanned his lap-top again. "It looks like the Kaibacorp computer system is under someone else's control!"  
  
"Is that bad?" Triston asked.  
  
"Almost this entire building is run with computer-automated equipment. If someone else is in control, we're locked down," Kaiba muttered.  
  
"Do you think that it's those people from last night?" Yugi asked.  
Kaiba couldn't answer.  
  
Suddenly, the whole room began to shift. The floors were going down again! The first part where Yugi, Tea, Triston, and Duke were standing, and the second part where Weevil, Rex, Espa, and Mako were standing.  
Joey and Bakura were on the bench, so they were safe as the floors disappeared and the arena's came down.  
  
"YUGI!" Joey cried, running to the edge, but it was too late.  
  
"Joey!" Bakura cried, pointing to Serenity, who had been between both of the floor pannels and hadn't gone down.  
  
But the arena's took up a little more room than the floor pannels, so Serenity would be crushed! Joey ran out along the little pannal of floor and pulled himself and Serenity away from the arena's before the hit the ground. The two toppled over and fell on the floor in front of Bakura.  
  
"Thank you, Onichan," Serenity said softly.  
  
"Ni-sama!" Mokuba cried as the arena they were in started to go back up to the upper ceiling.  
  
"Oh no!" Kaiba muttered as he and Mokuba were taken up to another floor as the floors replaced themselves in the room.  
  
"Kaiba!" Bakura cried.  
  
"Why do you care?" Joey asked Bakura, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"It's terrible for anyone, but especially him!" Bakura explained. "It's HIS company, and he's the only computer wiz around here! We'll never get out of this place without his help!"  
  
"Good point," Joey muttered, holding Serenity close to him. "KAIBA! GET BACK HERE!"  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi, Tea, Triston, and Duke had been lowered into a small room   
underneath the room they had been in.  
  
"Ouch!" Tea cried as she fell backwards when the floors hit the ground with a jerk.  
  
"Are you all right, Tea," Yugi asked, reaching out his hand to help her up.  
  
"Thanks, and yes, I'm okay," Tea said standing up. "But where are we?"  
  
The four looked around the room. It was dark, the only light coming from the hole in the duel arena above them.  
  
"I can't see anything," Duke muttered, looking around with his hand to his head to see better.  
  
"I'm starting to feel closterphobic!" Tea muttered shivering. "I hate feeling trapped!"  
  
"How long will we have to stay here?" Duke asked, turning to where he though Yugi was.  
  
"I have an idea," Yugi said, activating his duel disk and letting the hologram projectors loose. "I'll summon a monster, and the hologram light will show us the room!"  
  
"Great idea, Yugi!" Tea said happily, as he drew a card.  
  
Back up at the middle floor, Joey, Bakura, and Serenity were walking around, looking for a way out of the room.  
  
"Hey look," Joey said, hurrying over to a snack machine. "Maybe it still works."  
  
"I'd like this," Serenity said, pushing the button for strawberry lemonade.  
  
The vending machine shook, and spit out a soda can.  
  
"What?!" Joey cried, picking it up and examining it. "Grape, but it's free, sis." He added, tossing the can to his little sister.  
  
"Arrigata! (thank you), Onicha," she said, opening the lid.  
  
"Now I want..." Joey muttered looking at his selections. "This one. A coke."  
  
The vending machine shook once more and spit out another can. However, Joey was disappointed with his new soda.  
  
"Root beer?" he muttered tossing it aside. It clinked as it hit the floor and rolled across the room and down into the room where Yugi and the others were caught.  
  
The can hit Triston in the head.  
  
"Ouch!" Triston cried, picking up the can and rubbing his head.  
  
He read the label by the light of the hologram.  
  
"Root beer?" he asked.  
  
Duke shrugged.  
  
"Hey!" Bakura said thoughtfully. "Mai gave me her cell phone number yesterday... maybe we can call her for help!"  
  
Serenity nodded and pulled out a cell phone of her own.  
  
"Mom let me borrow it today," she explained as Joey punched in Mai's number and turned away from his sister and Bakura, who was trying to get a soda of his own from the machine.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Mai!" Joey cried as her heard a beep from the phone. The batteries were low.  
  
"What is it, Joey?" she asked, sounding annoyed.  
  
"HELP!" Bakura cried from behind Joey.  
  
"Not now, Bakura," Joey said, waving his hand.  
  
"But Joey!"  
  
"Not NOW!"  
  
"What is going on there?" Mai snapped.  
  
"THE VENDING MACHINE IS ATTACKING US!" Bakura screamed and Joey whirled around to see him and Serenity running away from the vending machine, which was madly spitting out cans at them.  
  
"Yikes!" Joey cried, running away.  
  
He, Bakura, and Serenity ran out a door that wasn't automated and into another room. Meanwhile, the cans rolled across the floor and started falling through the cracks and into the dark rooms below.  
  
"Ow!" Rex cried rubbing his head. "Weevil, why did you hit me?"  
  
"I didn't...ow!"  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"Stop it!" Espa cried.  
  
"It's a can storm!!" Mako declared, shielding himself with his duel disk.  
  
Yugi and his friends ran to one side of the room to avoid being hit in the head with the cans.  
  
"One thing's for sure," Yugi gasped, as he panted for breath. "We won't be thirsty for a while."  
  
"Great," Tea announced.  
  
Joey and Bakura leaned against the wall, catching their breath.  
  
Joey heard a beep, and the phone go dead.  
  
"No!" Joey cried, slapping the phone on the palm of his hand to revive it. "That was our only hope!"  
  
****  
  
End of Chapter 3. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have time, please review it! I'd love to know what you think. And if you haven't already, check out my other stories, "Dances, Theives, and Flowers" and "Springing into Action" 


	4. Chapter 4 Escape from Kaibacorp

Chapter 4 - Escape from Kaibacorp!  
  
Bakura sighed and slid down to the floor.  
  
"Now what will we do?" he moaned.  
  
"What if everything starts acting like that vending machine?" Serenity asked.  
  
"What if ALL the vending machines gang up on us and clobber us?" Bakura cried nervously.  
  
"I don't think Kaiba has that many vending machines," Joey said, more confidently than he felt. "But what if he does? We'll be canned!"  
  
"Onicha," Serenity said, walking toward the next door. "Not all the doors are computer run; perhaps we can find a way out through the doors that will open!"  
  
"Brilliant!" Joey said, hopping to his feet. "Let's go! Bakura!"  
  
"Okay!" Bakura said, standing up and following Joey and Serenity.  
  
The three took off out the door, as Kaiba and Mokuba had begun to look around.  
  
"Why are we up here, Ni-sama?" Mokuba asked, as Kaiba hopped over the side of the arena and out onto the platform of the upper floor.  
  
"I don't know," Kaiba wondered out loud. "But we definitely need to find a way out of here. I think that the entire computer system of Kaibacorp has been taken over."  
  
"Oh no!" Mokuba cried, hurrying after his brother. "But some of the most dangerous things, like the Virtual Reality system, and the floors and elevators, are controlled by the computer system of Kaibacorp!"  
  
"I know," Kaiba said, looking around, searching for a plan. "And someone could get very hurt..."  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi and Tea were searching for an exit in the strange underground room, while Duke and Triston helped themselves to the sodas on the floor.  
  
"Hey, I think I've found something," Tea announced, as she threw aside a grape soda and a root beer.  
  
"What?" Yugi asked, as he crawled over to her.  
  
She pointed to the wall in which there was a hole. A dark hole wide enough for just one of them at a time to fit through.  
  
"Where does it lead?" Duke asked, taking the last sip out of his orange soda and tossing it away.  
  
"I don't know..." Yugi murmmered. "However, there's only one way to find out!"  
  
He crawled over and slid down the chute.  
  
"YUGI!" Tea screamed, leaning in. "Whoa!"  
  
She slipped on the slick flooring to the chute and slid head-first down after Yugi.  
  
"Tea!" Triston called.  
  
"We have to go, Triston!" Duke announced, hopping in after them.  
  
"Why me?" Triston asked as he climbed in too. "Wait!"  
  
The chute was filled with the sounds of Tea's and Yugi's screaming as they all slid down into the depths of the tunnel.  
  
"When is it going to end!!!" Tea shrieked after a minute or so.  
  
"I don't know!" Yugi cried, hitting his Millennium Puzzle on the side of the chute.  
  
"I see something!" Yugi cried, as a speck of light appeared on the horizon.  
  
It got larger and larger until he smashed into a grate at the end of the tunnel. Tea smashed into him, Duke into her, and Triston into Duke.  
  
"Ohhh," Everyone moaned as they moved away from each other, clutching the bruised parts of their bodies.  
  
"I don't ever want to do that again," Tea sighed, trying to move around, but the passage was too narrow.  
  
"We have to find a way to get by this grate," Yugi said, staring at through the slats of light.  
  
"What do you see?" Duke asked, shoving Triston's foot off of his already numb leg.  
  
"It's a big computer room," Yugi called. "Maybe we can find an exit here! I mean, we did just go downhill, that had to have been at least 2 stories."  
  
"Yes, but how do we get by the grating?" Triston inquired.  
  
Yugi took off his Millennium Puzzle, and motioned for Tea to move back.  
  
"Sorry Yami!" he called as he swung the puzzle forward and the heavy metal of the puzzle smashed the grate clear off it's hinges.  
  
"All right!" Duke cried, trying to punch his fist into the air, though he only succeeded in denting the roof of the chute.  
  
"Careful," Yugi said as he looked outside of the chute. It was a long drop to the floor and the walls looked slick.  
  
"We'll just have to jump," Yugi said, looking at the floor.   
  
The flooring to Kaibacorp's ground looked hard as cement, but Yugi swallowed.  
  
"Let's throw all our coats and stuff down there to make the landing a bit softer," Yugi said, and he tossed his jacket down.  
  
Triston gave Yugi his coat and Duke handed over his vest.  
  
"Okay," Yugi said, taking a deep breath. "Here goes nothing!"  
  
He slipped out of the chute and fell down to the jackets, which didn't provide for much padding.   
  
"Ow," he mumbled as he sat up again, rubbing his arm.  
  
"Yugi! Are you okay!" Tea called down.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine," Yugi said, standing up. "I'll catch you Tea, just jump!"  
  
"Okay..." Tea said nervously slipping down and landing right on top of Yugi.  
  
"I'm sorry, Yugi," she apologized, quickly getting off of him and helping him to his feet.  
  
"It's...okay...Tea," Yugi muttered, rubbing his head.  
  
Meanwhile, Joey, Serenity, and Bakura were walking slowly down a corridor.  
  
"I wish I hadn't come here," Bakura muttered, as Joey tried to open an electronic door, which was sealed shut.  
  
"Stupid...computer...doors..." Joey muttered, kicking the door. "DRAT IT!"  
  
Suddenly, a large red light at the top of the door began to blink and a loud siren began to ring through the hallway, echoing off the steel doors.  
  
"INTRUDER...INTRUDER!" A loud, computer-sounding voice rang out. "ALERT! ALERT! ALL SYSTEMS, GO INTO MAXIMUM SECURITY MODE. I REPEAT, ALL SYSTEMS WILL NOW GO INTO MAXIMUM SECURITY MODE!!!"  
  
"Good going, Joey!!!" Bakura cried as the three stumbled down the hallway and away from the blinking and screaming door.  
  
"Sorry!"  
  
"Onicha!" Serenity cried, grabbing her brother's arm as a large chain-link blockade fell down in front of them.  
  
"Don't worry, Serenity," Joey said, backing away nervously.  
  
"What now, Joey?!" Bakura cried, panicking as another door slammed shut.  
  
"ONICHA?"  
  
"Joey?"  
  
Joey didn't say anything.  
  
Meanwhile, after Duke and Triston had made their way down the chute (though not much safer or painless than Yugi's experience) the gang looked around.  
  
"Well, this looks like a computer room," Yugi observed, looking at the large computers. "Perhaps it's the control room."  
  
"Maybe," Duke said. "But I think we ought to leave now."  
  
"Yeah," Tea said vaguely, going for the door. "What the..." she muttered, pulled on the handle. "It's stuck!"  
  
Duke ran over to help her.  
  
"It's locked!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Is there any other way out?!" Triston exclaimed.  
  
"I don't see one!" Yugi cried, looking around the room.  
  
"I'm starting to feel closterphobic!" Tea cried, looking nervously around.  
  
"Don't worry," Yugi said, trying to calm himself, and everyone else as well. "Kaiba will help us out...I hope."  
  
However, Kaiba and Mokuba were upstairs, running down the hallway, trying to dodge chain-link barriers that were falling down.  
  
"I don't even remember this emergency system being in the hard drive!" Kaiba cried, as he grabbed Mokuba away from being smashed by a barrier just in time.  
"How the heck did it get here?"  
  
"Maybe it was left-over from when Kazoboro was running things," Mokuba suggested.  
  
"Maybe..." Kaiba muttered, as he opened a door to broom closet and he and Mokuba jumped inside. "Or maybe it's left-over from the Big 5, when they were trying to take over Kaibacorp."  
  
"But someone else, probably the people who tried to kill me yesterday, has gotten hold of the information of the computer, and are now trying to take over Kaibacorp," Kaiba thought out loud. "I hope Yugi and the others will be all right for the time being." He thought to himself.  
  
"Ni-sama," Mokuba said, scared, hugging his brother. "What are we going to do?"  
  
"I'm figuring that out, right now..." Kaiba replied, thinking hard of what to do...  
  
****  
  
End of Chapter 4. Please review if you have time, and read my other Seto Kaiba story, Day for Dreams! (Click on my name to see my other stories)  
  
Thank you! 


	5. Chapter 5 The Plan For Freedom

Chapter 5: The Plan  
  
"VERY LONG CHAPTER-ALERT" :)  
  
"Maybe we can use these computers and turn the system around," Duke said, walking over to one and flicking the "on" button. "You think?" he asked everyone as they joined him.  
  
"Maybe..." Yugi muttered, putting his hand up to his chin thoughtfully. "But we don't even know how the Kaibacorp system works to begin with. We'd need passwords and codes..."  
  
"PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD:" The Computer said, coming up with a large black screen, behind which read the words "Kaibacorp Main Computer" in blue.  
  
"Uh..." Triston muttered, thinking.  
  
"INCORRECT PASSWORD. PLEASE TRY AGAIN:"  
  
"Idiot, I didn't mean to put that as my choice!" Triston said angrily, shaking his fist as the computer.  
  
"INCORRECT."  
  
Yugi made a cutting motion across his neck to indicate silence. Then, he pointed to his head.  
  
"Think before speaking," he mouthed to the others.  
  
"I'M WAITING," The computer snapped, making them all jump.  
  
"Mokuba," Yugi guessed.  
  
"INCORRECT."  
  
"Uh..." Triston muttered again.  
  
"INCORRECT."  
  
"Blue Eyes White Dragon?" Duke tried.  
  
"IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE PASSWORD THEN GET OUT OF HERE," The computer snapped back at him.  
  
"Just what we need," Tea sighed. "A sassy computer."  
  
The computer shut itself off.  
  
"Yikes! It really didn't feel like talking," Duke muttered, shaking his head sadly.  
  
Meanwhile, Mako, Rex, Weevil, and Espa were still having problems of their own with the cans.  
  
"If they don't...OW...stop coming...OW!!...We'll drown!" Rex said as a few more soda hit his head.  
  
"But what can we do?" Espa asked.  
  
"Hmmm..." Mako thought, then he grinned. "Aha! Of course!"  
  
He pulled out his fishing net.  
  
"What are you going to fish for cans?" Weevil laughed.  
  
"No!" Mako snapped, attaching a hook to all four corners of the net. "I'm going to stop the barrage. Observe."  
  
Mako swung the net up and three of the four corners caught onto latches of the arena above them. Two of the latches were where the cans were rolling down at them, therefore preventing any further cans from getting in.  
  
"So...now what?" Espa asked sitting down on a pile of sodas. "No more cans, but we're still not out of this mess.  
  
"I don't know," Mako said shrugging. "I only knew how to stop the cans."  
  
"And you barely knew how to do that," Weevil muttered.  
"Onicha!" Serenity cried, as she, Joey, and Bakura found themselves caged in.  
  
At one end of the corridor, there was a chain-link blockade. At the other end, there was another blockade. They were completely boxed in.  
  
"Don't worry, Serenity," he said, patting her arm. "I'm sure Yugi will help us out...somehow..."  
  
"But Yugi is still trapped under the floor," Bakura pointed out.  
  
"Shhh!" Joey hissed, raising his finger to his lips.  
  
He obviously didn't want to scare his little sister any more than she already was.  
  
"Look!" Bakura cried, running over to the side of a wall. "It's a vent!"  
  
Joey looked up and saw the opening Bakura was referring to.   
  
"But Bakura," he began. "It's five feet above us!"  
  
"So?" Bakura said bravely, walking over to the link barrier. "We can climb this chain thing up there!"  
  
He started to climb upwards and after a few minutes, found himself at the top. He panted for a moment.  
  
"This is tough work," he moaned, but then turned to the vent. "Um...okay!"  
  
"Are you sure you can do that, Bakura?" Joey called up as he knocked the cover off the vent, which fell to the floor with a clatter.  
  
"I...think so..." he muttered, trying to let go of the chain-links and grab onto the ledge of the vent.  
  
As he grabbed onto the vent, he let go of the link-fence and carefully placed his hands on the edge of the vent, his hands slipped under the slippery surface of the vent floor.  
  
"Whoa!" he cried as he tried desperately to stay on the vent.  
  
Serenity hid her eyes behind her hands.  
  
"Watch it, Bakura!" Joey called up as Bakura managed to pull himself up and into the vent, which clunked under his weight.  
  
"I'm okay!" Bakura called down to them. "But I don't think either of you should try doing that. In fact, I'm surprised I had the guts to do that!"  
  
"Well, what do we do now?" Joey called up.  
  
They heard a few clunks, meaning Bakura was moving away from them.  
  
"Just wait there! I'll find the others and get help!"  
  
"Right! Come back soon!" Joey yelled.  
  
"Is he going to be okay, onicha?" Serenity asked, still huddling close to her brother.  
  
"Yeah! We all know Bakura! He'll be fine..." he trailed off. "I hope." He added to himself.  
  
Meanwhile, Kaiba and Mokuba were still sitting in the closet, thinking of a plan.  
  
"So Yugi and four of his friends are under one floor, and Mako and some of the other duelists are under another," Kaiba thought out-loud. "That still leaves 3 people who weren't caught by anything yet...Bakura and Joey..."  
  
"And..." Mokuba tried to think.  
  
"Joey's sister," Kaiba finished. "She was still there before we went up here, remember?"  
  
Mokuba nodded.  
  
"So what's the plan, 'Ni-sama?" Mokuba asked.  
  
Kaiba smiled.  
  
"All right," he explained. "You are wearing your locket, right?"  
  
Mokuba dangled his in the air to show that he was.  
  
"I always wear it!"  
  
"Good," Kaiba said, standing up. "There's a vent in here somewhere," he muttered, rummaging around in the closet. We can use that to escape this floor, and hopefully we can use out cards to get by the security doors."  
  
Mokuba nodded, though Kaiba couldn't see him, as he was still searching for the "escape vent."  
  
"What then?"  
  
"Then we can try to use the main-computer system to shut off-line the security," Kaiba finished. "Here it!"  
  
There was a sound of metal against metal as Kaiba pulled the grating off the wall and looked in the vent. It was a downhill slope.  
  
Mokuba swallowed.  
  
"Um...we have to slide down? Where does it lead?" he asked, nervously looking down the black tunnel.  
  
"I'm trying to remember," Kaiba muttered, closing his eyes. "I never thought I'd be using the vents to escape my own computer, though."  
  
"Right! It leads to the second floor!" He opened his eyes.  
  
"Now, I'll go first, in case there's something down there," Kaiba said, climbing into the vent.  
  
"But 'Ni-sama!" Mokuba protested, but Kaiba was already getting ready to slide.   
  
"Come down after you hear me say it's okay!" Kaiba called as he pushed off and slid away.  
  
"Ni-sama!" Mokuba cried.  
  
A few minutes passed, in which Mokuba listened carefully for any sound of his brother, but nothing came.  
  
"Ni-sama? Are you okay?" Mokuba called down.  
  
"Yes..." Came a very small and distant voice. "I'm okay. Come down now, and I'll catch you!"  
  
"Okay," Mokuba called, sliding down the vent himself.  
  
A few minutes of sliding led to his brother, who was waiting at the bottom of the chute. He caught Mokuba, and then put him on the ground.  
  
"Thanks...Ni-sama!" Mokuba cried, suddenly noticing a large red stain seeping through his jacket near his chest. "Are you...okay?"  
  
"I'm fine...why?" he asked.  
  
Mokuba pointed to the stain.  
  
"What?" Kaiba asked reaching into his coat pocket.   
  
He pulled out a long, red, sticky stick.  
  
"My pen must have exploded when I hit the ground," he explained to Mokuba, who looked very relieved.   
  
"Whew! Thank goodness!" he said, sighing.  
  
Kaiba tossed the pen aside and looked around. The security wasn't affecting this side of the floor.  
  
"Hmm," he said, as he and Mokuba walked across the hall. "Don't touch anything, it could set off the alarm again."   
  
"Sure," Mokuba said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.  
  
After a few minutes, Kaiba found the door he had been looking for.  
  
"This is it!" he called to Mokuba, who was lingering in the middle of the hallway.  
  
Kaiba unhooked his necklace and slid the pendant-card on the end through the card reader.  
  
"APPROVED," The computer voice said, and the door opened.  
  
The two walked into a large room with many computers.  
  
"Okay!" Kaiba said, running directly over to a computer and flicking it on. "Let's get to work here."  
  
"Okay!" Mokuba said, going to turn on another one.  
  
Meanwhile, Joey and Serenity were sitting on the cool floor of Kaibacorp's hallways playing Duel Monsters, each using half of Joey's deck.  
  
Mako, Weevil, Rex, and Espa were just comparing Rare Cards. Yugi and his friends were trying to find another exit to the room they were in, and Bakura was still trying to get to the end of the vent.  
  
"Maybe this was a bad idea," he muttered to himself as he hit his head, for the second time, on the roof of the vent. "It's too small!"  
  
Meanwhile, Kaiba and Mokuba had managed to find the problem.  
  
"I've found it, Ni-sama!" Mokuba called. "Go to the file management program."  
  
"Okay," Kaiba muttered as he double-clicked on an icon. "Great! So, it seems they tried to take it over by copying the username? Well, to can play at that game..."  
  
Kaiba punched in his password (which was none of the ones Yugi had tried) and then entered a blockade.  
  
"I'm shutting the whole thing down for a minute, then I'll restart it under my control."  
  
Mokuba nodded as the whole room went black.  
  
"What happened, Onicha?" Serenity cried in the dark hallway.  
  
"Who turned off the lights?" Duke asked, from the computer room downstairs.  
  
"Great," Bakura muttered, trying to keep going down the now pitch-black vent. "This place isn't even big enough to turn around in! Guess I'll just have to keep going..."  
  
A few minutes later, Kaiba restarted the computer. The lights flicked back on and the whole security system was off. The chain-link barriers went back up into the ceiling. All the doors opened, and the adjustable room started adjusting again.  
  
Mako, Rex, Weevil, and Espa were lifted on the floor back up into the room, and the arena Kaiba and Mokuba were in earlier came back down.  
  
"Help!" Espa cried, and everyone realized that by going back up, they were now caught in Mako's fishing net.  
  
"Any more brilliant ideas?" Weevil asked coldly.  
  
"We did it!" Mokuba said happily, jumping over to his brother.   
  
"Yeah," Kaiba said, opening up the loudspeaker system. "EVERYONE?" he called out. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, THEN GO BACK TO THE ARENA ROOM, NOW. WE WILL BE MEETING THERE. ALL THE SECURITY IS OFF AND THE DOORS ARE UNLOCKED."  
  
"Thank goodness!" Tea cried, as Yugi opened the door and she hurried out into the hallway.  
  
"Let's go!" Yugi said, as he and the others ran up the stairs and to the correct room.  
  
"Great!" Joey said, hugging Serenity as she stood up. "Let's go sis!"  
  
A few minutes later, everyone except Bakura was back in the room, staring at the odd "Catch of the day" that was standing before them.  
  
"Ah..." Joey said, putting on a fake French waiter's accent. "Ze catch of ze day! Losers and soda!"  
  
"That's not funny!" Rex snapped. "Get us out of here!"  
  
Kaiba and Yugi freed them from their "net-prison" and then stepped back, away from the sodas as they ran wild.  
  
"Kaiba?" Yugi asked, pointing to him. "Are you okay?"  
  
"It's ink," he replied quickly. "My pen exploded."  
  
"Oh!" Yugi sighed. "That's a relief...but where's Bakura?"  
  
"I don't know," Tea said.  
  
"Onicha! Bakura is still in the vents!" Serenity cried suddenly, grabbing the end of her brother's shirt.  
  
"Uh oh," Joey said, looking worried.  
  
But at that moment, the grating fell off the vent on the wall, and Bakura waved down at them.  
  
"Hi!" he called. "Can someone get a ladder or something? I can't jump that far!"  
  
Everyone laughed.  
  
"Well, I'm glad that whole thing is over," Yugi sighed, sitting down on the couch.  
  
Kaiba nodded.  
  
"After we get Bakura down, you two still need to duel, Joey," Kaiba reminded him.  
  
"Oh...let's leave him up there for a while then!" Joey remarked, jumping away, still fearful of the occult deck.  
  
"HEY!" Bakura cried.  
  
THE END  
  
****  
  
Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!  
  
-Seto-Kaiba Red Archery Girl 


End file.
